Midnight Secretary
by AliceRed1878
Summary: She doesn't know who her mother is. She resents her father more than any other man in the world. A bad day at work turns into a living nightmare, and a bigger monster is unleashed. Yuri Sakurai gets caught in the middle of a war she didn't know existed until her coworkers turned into ghouls. Traumatized and then kidnapped, her only hope is a man dressed in red dark as blood.
1. Chapter 1

Yuri's hands rested against the cool wall in the elevator. Her ears were ringing from the deathly silence around her. She had to remind herself every minute that ticked by on her watch that she was in an enclosed space. Her eyes darted around the small chamber as if expecting a monster to rear its ugly head and sink its teeth into her. She glanced at her reflection through the cracked frames in her glasses in the chrome paneling. Her black hair had been loosened from its tight bun. The up do was held in tact by the world's strongest hairspray. Her lucky pencil stood lazily at an angle from her fussed up bun. Strands of hair clung to her sweaty forehead and neck. Her white blouse was sticky with sweat and blood, some of it not even hers. Her pencil skirt had a rip up the front, her left thigh peeking scandalously out from beneath the gray tweed fabric. Her tie had been torn from her neck and she lost her blazer a while ago. She stood, shaking, on blistered and bruised feet. The heel on her right shoe threatened to fall off.

As her breath fogged up the shiny chrome paneling, Yuri thought about how she should have stayed home from work today.

The elevator dinged. Her heart stopped. She hadn't touched the buttons, nor would she want to. Not with what was waiting for her beyond the doors. The elevator was stuck between two floors, between three and four to be exact. Yuri gasped, a little closer to a scream, as her once secure hiding place started moving up. She spun around, her knuckles white as she gripped the bars that lined the elevator. Her slate-colored eyes stared up at the digital box that read the numbered floors. The red lights seemed like they were from hell. Instead of ringing, her heart pounded in her ears. She could hear her blood pumping and coursing through her body. She couldn't scream; her tongue having cleaved to the roof of her dry mouth.

This was it. Her life was over before she knew it.

_This is the worst day of my life,_ was one of Yuri's final thoughts before her eyes glanced at the emergency exit.

It was a small square, but it may as well have been as big as the Grand Canyon. It was her sanctuary. She jumped towards that end of the elevator, climbed up on the railings, and gave the ceiling a push. The emergency exit opened up easily for her, one of the only little mercies granted to her that day. A joyful smile spread across her lips as she forced herself through. The elevator stopped. She had just enough time to seal the exit back up before the groans of her undead co-workers echoed underneath her feet.

She held her breath.

She really should have stayed home today.

April 20th, 1999, 7 A.M- Boston, Massachusetts

Yuri smashed her fist on top of her alarm clock then yawned. She clambered out of bed, ruffling the back of her head, further messing up her hair. First a quick shower, a scant breakfast of fried eggs and butter and jam free toast washed down with pulpy orange juice, brushed her teeth, and put the finishing touches on her hair, including placing her lucky pencil into the smart, clean bun at the back of her head. The fact that she had narrowly missed a flower pot falling from a seventh story window just by picking up the pencil made it lucky, divine even. She started carrying it with everywhere she went, just to be on the safe side. She would need it today. Vice-president Grayson T. Powers, son of the corporate president, William Philips Powers, would have her as a secretary today. Of all the men in all the businesses in all the world, _he_ had to be the one his father promoted her to work for. The slimy, arrogant, misogynist had been ogling her since she first walked in his office delivering files from the financial director. He tried to impress her with money, like she was like all the other women who fell at his feet, but when he realized that she moonlighted as a video game playing, comic book reading, anime watching geek, he did more poorly in his attempts to seduce her. She may have been a nerd and an otaku, but there was no way she'd get fired for fraternizing with her boss.

She placed her lips on the photocopy of Kenshin Himura taped her glass mirror, and sighed.

"Why can't you exist in the real world? You wouldn't let a poor, innocent girl like me be abused so cruelly my bosses, would you?" She looked at the ronin's blank eyes, now incredibly depressed about talking to a picture of a fictional character taped to her bathroom mirror.

Grudgingly, she gathered her stuff into her purse and headed out the door.

7:15 A.M

"Dammit!" Yuri hit the steering wheel with her weak little fists, succeeding only in hurting herself. She turned the key once more, but was greeted by the whining, constipated sounds of an engine that was probably dead.

She got out of her car, kicked her front tire, and stomped her foot on the hood, not even denting it. If she wasn't there at work within thirty minutes, she was going to be late. Yuri could see Grayson's smug little face when she would have to apologize for being tardy on her first day under his supervision. She could see the gears in his head turning as he would try to make up a punishment for her. Tardiness would earn her a stern talking to, but considering who it was, her sexual harassment senses were tingling. Sure, she could quit, but this was the best paying job she ever had. Where else would she turn to?

Yuri reached back into her car. She grabbed her purse and the keys from the ignition. The car door was slammed shut. Her heel made contact with the back tire as she stormed away from the vehicle. She made her way to the nearest bus stop, one where she knew took her closest to the Powers Intelligence Inc. building.

8 A.M

Yuri's brow was twitching like it was recovering from a cocaine addiction. It was early in the morning, why was there so many people on board? A crude-looking punk straight out of the ghetto, or at least that's what he pretended to be from. His nice little Armani jacket and brand new Pumas on his feet would say otherwise. Another white gangster wanna-be trying to be the next Eminem. Besides men that act like wild boars and automated IRS phone prompts, his kind were one of the many things Yuri hated in this world. And the prick took up two perfectly good seats, sitting astride them with his legs spread open. He hammered away at his cell phone like he was somebody important. He hadn't even stopped to consider that the woman who was holding on for dear life to the safety harness above his head needed a spot to sit in. And that woman was Yuri, who could have easily told him off and made him scoot over, but for some reason or another, she was silent. Like she'd always been, just a door mat for everybody to step on.

According to her psychiatrist, it wouldn't kill her to be more assertive.

Oh well, Yuri ran out of time when she pulled the cord, requesting to stop two blocks from where she needed to be. It was pointless worrying about being late now. It was at least eight fifteen. She gave the white Usher wanna-be a glare, which he didn't bother to notice as his brain was orbiting Jupiter while his physical body remained on earth. He was no better than sack of potatoes sitting there with a dumb, hypnotized look on his face. Yuri hopped off, readjusting her purse on her shoulder. Her heels clicked against the pavement. It had taken her several months to get used to wearing high heels. She'd worn cosplay with Victorian boots, but those were not appropriate for modern work attire. She could wander around the San Diego Comic Con for an entire day and not worry, but when it came to regular heels she used to be as clumsy as a new born calf. With practice, walking came with ease and she could do a brisk jog in them if the need arose. Like, say, if she was running late.

But why bother now? She was late anyway thanks to the blasted piece of crap rusting in her driveway. For a brief second she wondered if she remembered to roll the windows up, and then thought that even if they weren't, who would still a hunk of junk and if they did, let them have it! It had caused nothing but grief for her. The old thing was on its last leg. A 1980 red Buick, or at least it was red. Now it was painted over in a delightful shade of brown-red rust. Reddish chips were still clinging to Yuri's shoes when she entered through the lobby.

"Morning Yuri," Barbara chirped from behind the lobby receptionist desk.

She managed to utter a "good morning" back, but as soon as she was out of Barbara's sight her smile quickly evaporated, and it wasn't just because she was late on the first day of being Grayson's secretary. Barbara gotten into the habit of sneaking into the break room and stealing Yuri's lunches. The fat hoe, she only started doing it when Grayson decided to announce to the world that Yuri was going to be his new secretary, a job she had her eye on for years. And judging by the couple of pounds she'd been gaining, Barbara didn't have much time left to be the hot secretary, pushing towards the ripe old age of thirty-seven. The breast implants did nothing but give her the personality of a pair of milk jugs. Pun intended.

Yuri took the elevator to the twenty-seventh floor, Grayson's floor. She took a deep breath just as the doors pulled open.

So far so good. Grayson wasn't anywhere to be seen. She still had time to pull herself together before confronting him. Her purse was stashed under her new desk. Grayson's office door was closed. She knocked.

"Come in," Grayson's called from within. His voice was stoic. What waited for her on the other side of that door? She steeled herself and pushed open the door.

"Mr. Powers, sir," she began, "I'm sorry I'm late. My car wouldn't start and I had to take the bus."

Grayson turned his cold blue eyes towards her. His stoic voice earlier had her put her guard down. When Yuri went inside his office, he had a smug look on his face.

"You weren't late on purpose, were you, Miss Yuri Sakurai?"

The way he said her full name sent a shiver down her spine.

"No, sir. My car wouldn't start. I have never been late to work, sir. I am always on time. This is the first time my car decided not to cooperate with me. I'm really sorry."

In another world, Grayson might have seemed attractive. His black hair was slicked back, his piercing blue eyes seemed to stare right into her soul. His was tall and slim with a smile that could send women fainting. He looked like a movie star. But this was all subjective opinion. All of these things, no matter how handsome he may have seemed, his good looks weren't enough to compensate for his horrible personality. Yuri had seen him flash that movie-star smile at her more than a dozen times by now. He always seemed to be to track her down. He had greedy, predatory eyes that liked to follow her. If she was made of weaker stuff, she might have caved by now. During the last Christmas party she was forced to attend, he tried to bribe her with tickets to the San Diego Comic Convention, which she quickly turned down. Spending three days with that man was on the top one-hundred things she'd rather not do, right after squirting acid into her eye balls and going to a dinner party hosted by cannibals.

Even now, she could feel his gaze on her, watching every subtle movement.

"Do you need help getting started?"

"I've been a secretary before, I know how the job goes." She answered tersely and went out the door again.

Yuri eased herself into her new chair. It was so comfortable, the only perk about taking this job. It was like sitting on a cloud, a big, fluffy, leather bound cloud. It had the perfect back support. The computer on her desk was brand new too. The latest from Dell. In about three months or less it would be considered obsolete. The phone rang. Time to get to work.

12:30 P.M

The phone rang just as Yuri returned from her lunch break. She sneaked down to the employees lounge and grab her lunch before Barbara could get her cheap-manicured fingers on it. She ate in relative peace without either Barbara or Grayson to bother her. When she returned to her desk, the phone was ringing she picked it up without hesitation.

"Powers Intelligence INC., Grayson Powers' office, how may I help you?"

"_Guten Tag, Fraulein_. Is Herr Powers in his office now?"

Yuri felt her face scrunch in confusion.

"I'm sorry would you mind repeating that and enunciate. I'm afraid I can't understand you accent very well." If he was Greek or Japanese, she would have had better luck translating, but clearly the speaker was German and she didn't speak a lick of German.

"_Ich bin schreklich leid._ I'm sorry. Is this better?"

She nodded, though what was the point. "Yes, I can understand you better now. What is that you wanted of Mr. Powers?"

"Would you be so kind as to ask Herr Powers if he is still wanting to meet this afternoon?"

"May I ask who's calling?"

"Max, _Major _Max."

Yuri left the phone on top of her desk. The phone call seemed very important despite the caller's almost jovial voice. She left the receiver on her desk instead of putting it back where the phone belonged. Knocking politely and entering, Grayson sat at his desk, his head cradled between his hands as he looked over some sort of journal.

"Mr. Powers, sir."

He suddenly looked up, his dour mood vanished. He smiled at her again like she was a long-lost lover.

"Call me Grayson, Miss Yuri."

"_Mr. Powers,_" the last thing she wanted to do was stroke his ego, "you have a call from a Major Max, he wants to know if you're still willing to have your meeting this afternoon."

"Max, did you say?" Grayson's face changed once more as he seemed to contemplate over something in his mind while still undressing her with his eyes.

"Yes, sir."

He closed the leather-bound journal he'd been studying. "Tell me that we'll see him at four today, in my father's office."

"Yes, sir." Yuri hurried out of the room. She had never seen Grayson look so...there was no word to correctly describe it. He was thinking about something. She could see the gears turning in his head. It wasn't exactly her place to discuss business. Whoever this Major Max was, it was none of her concern. He was probably a German military officer who wanted to use Powers Intelligence for some undercover political investigation. That was what Powers Intelligence was built for. The term Mr. Powers Sr. used was "information gathering," but in reality was nothing more than political and corporate espionage with the FBI and CIA quietly nodding before they denied the corporation's existence. On the outside, the company was into computer safety and anti-virus software, a perfect cover-up.

Yuri picked up the phone as she sat down again. "Yes, Major. Mr. Powers will be looking forward to your meeting. Is four o'clock today alright with you?"

"_Wunderbar_, yes, excellent. Ve vill be there at four. _Auf Wiedershen, Frualein!_" And he hung up.

Yuri thought nothing about the unusual caller. It was in her interest not to get involved in the business beyond her call of duty as a secretary. She went back to work, filing, answering calls, arranging appointments. Business as usual. It was business as usual until Grayson called her into his office. She sighed, but obeyed orders.

"You wanted to see me, sir."

Grayson nodded, his blazer was sitting on the back of his chair. It wasn't like him to be so casual. He nodded, flashing a smirk instead of a smile. Yuri backed up slightly in the door frame, her hand still on top of the door knob.

"Please, come in, and shut the door while you're at it." He beckoned.

She knew this day would come, when he finally had the guts to actually try and touch her, she had hoped he waited a few months before stepping up to this level of sexual harassment.

"I'd rather not, sir. In fact, I think I'll stay right here." She clutched the door frame.

Grayson was not pleased with her reaction. His dazzling smile dropped like an anchor. His blue eyes turned cold and menacing, but Yuri firmly remained where she stood.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize that you were the boss of me." He walked around the desk and began walking towards her.

Yuri was thankful that his office was so long. "With all due respect, sir, I don't feel comfortable staying in a room with you with the door closed."

His hand slammed against the wall next to her face. Yuri, startled, jumped a little. Her slate-colored eyes met his ice-cold blue ones. His stare was as hard as the line of his mouth. He seized the door knob and shut it. Yuri's wrist was taken in his vice grip and held behind her back. His arm around her waist was like a python, unyielding. Yuri struggled against him. He was too strong. She froze when his lips grazed along the side of her neck, sending goose bumps all over her skin. She winced, trying to move her neck out of his reach. His kisses were like drops of acid on her skin.

"Damn," his hand reached up and suddenly ripped open her blouse, the top two buttons flew across the room and landed softly on the carpet somewhere, "you smell good. What is this scent?"

"Sexual Harassment Lawsuit is what it is! Let me go!"

His grip on her wrist tightened. Yuri ground her teeth at the sharp pain, a hiss escaping from her as she tried to recoil from his harsh treatment.

"I've been waiting for too long. Playing hard to get...that wasn't nice."

"'Playing hard to get?'" Yuri was disgusted. "Are you kidding me? You are the most unattractive person in this building. You're a creep, and loathsome, and disgusting and all around scum!"

"I tried being nice and tried to get into your hobbies and interests, but you still didn't catch my drift. You're such a little weirdo, you know that?"

"Oh, now I'm really turned on," she sneered.

"It's not my fault you're a geek," his tongue lashed against the lobe of her ear. Yuri continued to fight. The thought of having his saliva anywhere on her body made bile rise in her throat. "But that's not quite what I'm interested in. I can ignore the rest." His hand gently wrapped around her throat, "And pay attention to this..."

His hand dragged slowly down her torso and down to her breast. His large hand cupped her there, groping and teasing her through her clothes, "And this..."

The hand traveled further south until he was grabbing what lay between her thighs. Her cheeks turned bright red.

"And this," Grayson spotted Yuri's flushed pink face. "Still a virgin? Seriously, you're, like, twenty-six years old, and you're still a virgin," a deep peel of laughter erupted from his throat. "Oh well, that's just an added bonus."

Her spine collided against the nearest wall. She didn't know when or how Grayson whipped her around and slammed her against the wall. The back of her skull bounced a little on impact. For a brief second, her vision blurred. Grayson's figure, leering at her with those sharp blue eyes, the only things that she was able to focus on, moved in and out of her field of vision even though he was standing still. She felt her arms being raised above her head, Grayson's hands pinned her there. His knee was rammed between her legs. She was immobilized by the time her vision cleared. The first thing she saw was Grayson's broad smile and his white teeth that were vicious canine's ready to bite on her flesh. He was going to devour her.

"We don't have much time, so it's going to hurt like hell. Next time, it won't be so bad," his hot breath ghosted across her collar bone.

"Sorry to intrude but..."

Grayson and Yuri snapped their heads to find a short and stout blonde man, his eyes hidden behind the glare on his glasses. Grayson immediately let her go. She fell face first into the carpet.

"And you are?" Grayson's hands were balled into fists at his sides.

Yuri remained on the floor, breathing heavily. She had come close to being raped. Bile rose higher, forcing her to dry heave. The sour taste tainted her mouth and tongue. Her head felt heavy.

"I spoke vit your secretary, Herr Powers. I am ze major, Major Max."

Grayson smiled, but not as broad as earlier. "I'll show you to my father's office myself, Major. Come with me."

Yuri looked up to find him heading out the door. The men turned to look at her briefly.

"I'll back. Don't go anywhere," Grayson ordered.

But above all, what was more disturbing than the way Grayson looked at her and ordered her to stay in his office, was the major's gaze when it fixed on her. He turned his head ever so slightly so that his bright, golden eye was visible. His eye didn't just look at her, it through her, into her, piercing her through her soul. His thin lips curled into a hideous smirk, just a greedy as Grayson's and more devilish. Yuri swallowed hard and she was sure she appeared positively terrified. The German seemed to enjoy watching her shiver with fear as she propped herself up against the wall. Her arms were like jello. She barely had the strength to sit herself up. His eyes were soulless.

"Rest well, _Fraulein._" Were the Major's last words to her before the door was closed and locked.


	2. Chapter 2

Yuri didn't know which to recover from first: the attempted rape on her person or seeing the German man with the soulless eyes. Grayson's fingerprints were all over her new bruises and stained her skin just as the German's eye was burned into her brain. A million thoughts ran through her head. A million questions but no answers. The voices in her head were so loud she couldn't hear her own. She sat on the floor, propped up against the wall. The room had become so stifling that she ripped off her blazer jacket and loosened the tie about her neck. Grayson had nearly ripped it off to begin with anyway.

The thought of him caused bile to run up her sore throat. Any minute now he would return to finish the job. He would come back throw her against the wall or on top his desk and rape her. Having him forcing himself inside of her made her cry and wail before he even actually touched her. Why did he pick on her? There were prettier women in the office who would be willing. Why her?

Questions like these only made matters worse. Yuri ended up bemoaning her fate, crawling into the closest corner she could find and bring her knees to her chest. She sobbed into her lap and rocked back and forth.

The phone on Grayson's desk rang. She forgot that he had a phone in his office. Yuri had the strength to stand on her own again. She sprinted towards his desk. Her hand grabbed the phone nearly throwing the receiver clean off the desk. Her cheeks were burning and the heat rose all over her skin. The throbbing of her blood pumping into her ear drums made it difficult for Sabrina down at the front desk to be heard.

"Mr. Powers?" She must have been confused by Yuri's heavy breathing into the phone.

"Sabrina, you have to call the police." She said so fast that it almost came out as one word.

"What? Yuri, is this you? What's going on?"

"He tried to rape me!" Yuri screamed into the phone. "You _have _to call the police. Now."

"Who?"

"Grayson, dammit! Who else?"

Sabrina spoke with someone else softly. Yuri couldn't make out the words, Sabrina's voice so soft.

"Yuri, please calm down."

"Grayson Powers tried to rape me not even twenty minutes ago! He's in his father's office right now with some German military guy. I need police up here now!"

Sabrina didn't answer back. The line went dead. There was a click in the audio receiver and then dial tone. Yuri pressed star 69 on repeat but could not get the main desk back on the phone. She hung up quickly before hammering 9-11 into the phone. She cried when she heard only static.

The phone was thrown at the wall. The plastic outer shell shattered, breaking it in two. The receiver with its long plastic cord tangled up followed the phone.

In defeat, Yuri crawled under the desk to wait for her fate.

* * *

"That's odd, Yuri is usually so punctual with answering phone calls," the clerk at the front desk spoke with Integra as she held the phone to one ear and tapped a number two pencil in the other.

After several more moments of waiting, Sabrina, as her shiny brass name tag stated on her lapel, hung up and applied the extension for Powers Jr.'s number. A whole minute passed before he answered, or at least someone did. There was heavy breathing so thick that she swore that she could feel it in her ear.

"Mr. Powers?"

"Sabrina, you have to call the police." The person on the phone wasn't Mr. Powers, but his new secretary Yuri, and she sounded terrified.

"What? Yuri, is this you?" She asked to confirm, although she was almost entirely certain of the identity of the person on the other end of the phone. "What's going on?" She feared the worst.

"He tried to rape me!" Sabrina was force to take the phone away from her ear, Yuri was screaming bloody murder, not literally though. "You _have_ to call the police. Now." She demanded.

It might have been the fact that his father signed her pay check or that it was hard to believe that Grayson had been reduced to taking a woman by force, but Sabrina couldn't believe that he was capable of such a horrible crime.

"Who?"

"Grayson, dammit! Who else?"

Yuri was going into hysterics. She didn't make any sense, not to mention that swearing was not a characteristic trait of hers.

Sabrina turned to Integra who had been waiting patiently. "I'm so sorry. Do you have a phone on you by any chance? It's an emergency."

She shook her head. "I don't have that on my person. But my butler does." She turned on her heels, her platinum hair fluttering behind her back as she turned.

Sabrina watched her move from the front desk to the lobby/waiting area. She came in abruptly with three men, looking more like mercenaries than business men. The gentleman all in black and long hair of an inky shade so dark that it blended into his suit had his eyes covered by orange sunglasses, but he wore a strange smirk. His thin lips were oddly enough both disturbing an alluring. She had to admit that she blushed when she first laid eyes on him.

"Yuri, please calm down." She put the phone back near her mouth.

"Grayson Powers tried to rape me not even twenty minutes ago! He's in his father's office right now with some German military guy. I need the police here now!"

A click, and Yuri was gone. Sabrina dialed the extension again but only got static. The line was dead.

Integra returned to the front desk.

Sabrina placed the phone back with a confused and even worried look on her face. "The line...it just went dead."

"We can't get a signal either. Does this normally happen?"

She shook her head and started making her way around the desk. "I'll go find the maintenance crew. They know what's going on here."

A metallic clang echoed throughout the lobby. The metal grates had been slammed shut over the doors. An office worker ran over and tried to lift the grate with his bare hands. Sabrina knew him.

"Thomas, what are you doing?"

"What...does it look...like I'm...doin'?" He ground his teeth but the bars wouldn't budge.

"You'll hurt yourself like that." She ran over to him and pulled him back the back of his jacket.

Office workers swarmed around the blocked door and others checked the emergency exits. Panic rose when it was discovered that neither the metal grate over the front exit nor the emergency exits would open. All was locked and barred, effectively sealing them in like sardines in a can. The lights dimmed. A woman screamed. Voices began to rise one above another until the whole of the lobby was echoing with panicked, frightened voices. Sabrina found herself lost in the crowd, being pushed and pulled wherever the mob would lead her. The air was stifling with the warm bodies gathered into one space. While the lobby was large enough to hold them all, with this many people gathered around with panic on their minds, claustrophobia quickly set in.

"Sir Integra," a man cried out from above the crowd. The old man.

"Help? Over here?" She waved her arm in the air but nobody pulled her out of the swarming mass of business suits and pencil skirts.

Sabrina shoved her way through the crowd with all of her might. By the time she escaped the hysterics, the woman who introduced herself five minutes ago as Sir Integra Hellsing as well as her men disappeared into thin air.

* * *

Grayson knocked. He entered the room again not long after she threw his phone across the room. His shoes kicked aside the broken pieces of plastic. They were shuffled out of his way, some pieces dragging slowly against the carpet. But then he spoke.

"_Guten Abend_, Miss Secretary."

Yuri might have released a sigh of relief if it had been anybody else. She thought the footsteps seemed heavier than usual. She slowly crawled out from underneath the desk. Her legs wobbled, buckling under the weight of her own body. Her hand flew to the desk where she clung unto it for support. Their eyes met again. An icy shiver ran down her spine.

"Do you know why I'm here, _Fraulein_?"

Yuri shook her head having lost most of her ability to use her vocal chords.

"You, my dear, are a very _special_ specimen vee hav been looking for."

She swallowed hard. He couldn't mean what she thought he meant. Suddenly, she regained the ability to speak.

"W-what do you mean? I'm nobody special. I...I'm just a secretary." She nearly collapsed into Grayson's chair but didn't want the stink of him on her body at the moment.

The blonde man shook his head, his bangs falling into his face,partially covering his right eye. A gloved hand moved it back into place and he stared at her with those soulless yellow eyes she quickly began to hate more and more.

"_Fraulein_," he said in a disappointed tone like a condescending father, but what would she know of fathers? "I already know."

Her heart skipped a beat. "You..you know what? What is there to know?"

His deep chuckle sent shivers down her already chilled spine. His pale lips curled into an atrocity of a smile, something she'd only remember in her nightmares.

"Your_ gift_."

The color drained from her face. She fell back into Grayson's chair, despite not wanting to have any reminder of that man on her skin or clothes. Her knuckles turned white as she clutched the arms of the leather bound chair. The legs that once barely supported her were visibly shaking. The major made his way towards her. In that moment, she didn't know who was more terrifying, Grayson or this man? There was an insane look in his eyes, the Major's. His gleaming white square teeth that showed when he offered her that twisted little smirk of his resembled more like the sharp teeth of wolves or a shark. He stalked his way towards her, his heavy set figure moving about like a low-lying predator in the tall grass. His white gloves cupped his face, his thumbs rubbing circles into her cheeks in a teasing manner.

"Vhat do you see when you close your eyes at night? Var? Terrorism? Death, murder, rape? The very sins of humanity opened up before you vin-ever you lay your head down on your pillow to sleep? It must be so..." He paused. His grin became utterly ghastly even at the mere mention of all those horrible things. "_Exhilarating_."

Yuri shoved him away from her. She flew from the chair, but her skirt caught on the edge of Grayson's desk. She grabbed the material and pulled. The fabric tore open a gaping split seam, showing off the milky skin just above her knee.

"Don't touch me," she braced herself against the wall.

The Major chuckled. "I merely vant to ask you a few questions, _Fraulein_. Is that too much to ask?"

"D-don't you dare tell me that I get _excited_," she spat out the word, a little spittle falling from between her lips, "watching all of the violence and gore and bloodshed when I sleep at night or even in broad daylight! I have been _plagued_ by those visions since I was a child. They have caused me nothing but grief and pain."

"You are psychic?" Though he seemed to have the answer already, long before she could reply.

Her fearful gaze turned into a low-burning glare. "Yes," she hissed.

The Major slipped his hand inside his breast pocket and withdrew an iron cross, a Nazi iron cross.

"If you vood be so kind as to place your hand on this medal, I can be on my vay."

Without even touching it, Yuri could feel the black and red aura enclosing around the medal. Violence, death, genocide, everything she saw on a regular basis flashed in her mind. She reached out her hand, but rather than take the medal that lay in the palm of his hand, she smacked it away from her and flew from the chair. The medal landed on the carpet with a dull thud as she ripped open the door, fleeing like her life depended on it. It probably did. The Major watched her sprint for the elevator and saw the doors close in front of her. He bent over where the medal landed and picked it up with much reverence.

"_Mein Fuehrer_," his thumbs caressed the cold metal.

* * *

Moments Earlier

Grayson Powers drank deeply from his father's throat, the old man staring up into oblivion. Both of the their suits were stained red with Powers Senior's blood.

"Don't forget to cut out his heart or remove his head. If you don't vant him to turn into a ghoul. You did say that you vanted to never see his face again."

Grayson replied with a growl from his throat as he sucked the life force out of his father. His father was still wearing that look of betrayal and horror as his son was transformed in front of his own eyes from a human to a blood-sucking monster. Once he was drained of all his blood, Grayson plunged his hand within his father's chest. It was easy work to crush the hard sternum and glide his hand past the jagged, broken ends of those pesky ribs protecting the heart. He groped around a little bit before finding the soft muscle. His fingers grasped the heart tightly and then ripped it out in one fell swoop. The heart lay in his bare palm, unmoving and dripping in slimy, wet, red gore. Grayson's tongue licked the back of his hand and around his palm, lapping up the juices that oozed out of his old man's heart. His fingers tightened around the heart and squeezed what remainder of life fluid it might have. He squeezed and squeezed until the organ was nothing but a gooey mess of red mush and loose tendrils of what used to be arteries and ventricles. He threw the remnants of his father's heart into the trash can without so much remorse.

They waited several minutes, watching the corpse. It remained still as a statue. Powers Senior's face was still contorted into that mask of death. His eyes were wide as saucers, blankly staring up at the ceiling. His mouth was twisted open in a silent scream. Those beefy fingers of his were frozen in rigor mortis around the arms of his high-back leather chair, the knuckles as white as his face and Death. The color in his cheeks as well as his blood that used to flow throughout his body was crudely drained from the hole in his thick neck. Teeth marks, much like an animal's, tore out his throat. The blood spattered against the wall behind, on the floor, and on the cherry wood desk. The day planner he left open was painted in his blood too. His suit, shirt, and tie were not left untouched. All the way down his front and the thighs of his pants were stained red, so too was it with Grayson's clothes.

He wiped the blood from his chin with the back of his father's jacket sleeve. The tie around Grayson's neck was loosened and thrown over his head where it landed in the trash bin with the squished remains of his dead father's heart. The first two or three buttons of his shirt were opened and the blazer tossed to the floor.

"So?" The Major began. "How does it feel to be a vampire, Mr. Powers."

Grayson busied himself rolling up his sleeves. "Please," he grinned. "Call me Grayson." He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbow before taking a seat on top of his father's precious desk. He looked quite comfortable. He remembered how his father hated when he sat on his desk like this. He gave the corpse of his father a smug glance. "As for being a vampire, I think it is very liberating." Grayson turned back to the Major.

"Do you really think so, Grayson?" The Major chuckled.

He nodded. "Very much so. In fact, if I knew I could do it, I might have become a vampire long ago. Then I wouldn't have to go to boring business school to please my father." This made him sneer. All of those wasted years, just to please his old man. It made him want to bring his father back to life in order just to kill him all over again.

"But then, you might not haf met Yuri Sakurai, am I right?"

At this, Grayson smiled with blood-stained teeth. He remembered how her curvy body squirmed under him. Those deep curves of her hips and breasts were always hidden underneath those stuffy, prudish suits she swore. Gods, he couldn't wait to have another go at her.

"There is one thing I almost forgot to mention, Grayson." The Major's annoying, cheerful tone pulled him away from his fantasies of Yuri sprawled beneath, panting, screaming, and moaning because of him, for him.

Grayson scowled as he reached inside his blazer for his cigarettes and lighter.

"What's that?" He held one between his teeth as he held the orange flame of the lighter to the end of his cigarette.

"If you take her and then drink her blood, she vill turn into a ghoul." The Major answered in a semi-serious way.

Grayson blew an exasperated puff of smoke. "Now you tell me."

"And are you sure, she is a virgin?"

"Why should that matter?" He was starting to get really ticked off.

"Because if she isn't, when you drink her blood, she vill also turn into a ghoul."

Grayson removed his cigarette and swore. "Seriously? What's with all of these rules? Can't I just fuck her and hand her over to you when I'm bored."

"She'd be of no use to us if you turned her into a ghoul."

"Shit," Grayson growled. He took another drag from his cigarette. "Anything else I need to know?"

The Major shook his head. "That is all. Enjoy the rest of eternity, Grayson. I look forward to seeing you very soon." He spun on his heel and started for the door.

"Where are you going?" Grayson asked.

"I'm going to check up on your little girlfriend, and then I vill take mein leave."

Grayson scoffed. "How? We sealed this place up tighter than Fort Knox."

The Major chuckled. Grayson was starting to get really annoyed at this man's laughter.

"I have my vays. _Auf Wiedershen_."

* * *

Yuri didn't just run for the elevator, she jumped towards it. Her legs couldn't get her there fast enough. Forget her purse, she'd walk home or hitch a ride from a strange and sneak in through the back door to get into her house if she had to. Anything would be better than being near that man, either of them. Once the chrome doors shut on her, she collapsed, heaving for breath. Her breath fogged up the chrome metal bars that encircled the elevator. Crawling on her hands and knees, she pressed the round button for the lobby floor.

It was a long ride down. It gave her just enough time to catch her breath and collect herself.

The bell rang when she reached her destination. The doors pulled open to reveal a dark lobby. For some reason the elevator still worked despite the fact that it seemed that the power was out. She had never seen the lobby so dark.

Carefully, she raised herself up to her feet again and stepped out. She glanced around, her eyes taking several moments to become acquainted with the unusual darkness. Her footsteps echoed. The place seemed hallow.

"Hello?" She was sure there had to be at least half a dozen people down here. The lobby was rarely, if ever empty. Someone had to be at the front desk, somebody had to be here for business from another corporation, and somebody had to be heading into to work at their shift. Somebody, anybody, should have been down in the lobby.

At first, she was answered with only the sound of her voice reverberating against the darkness. As she wandered further, figures appeared in the shadows.

"Hello?"

This time growls and moans answered her. Her eyes, now well-adjusted to the shadows in the windowless lobby, discovered the glowing blue eyes. Her co-workers were misshapen corpses wearing nothing but torn clothes and blood stains. It took her a brief moment to let it all sink in. Her heart jumped into her throat. The blood in her veins froze before it came to life again, throbbing in her ears again. Her formerly alive co-workers stared at her blankly with cold, hungry glares. Her lips trembled as she tried to find the correct response. She shuddered and let out a tremendous shriek.

They moved towards her, shambling like only zombies could. Their shoulders bumping into each others as they stalked their way towards her. Yuri stood stock still for just a moment, the realization that her co-workers were no flesh eating ghouls. Suddenly, _Night of the Living Dead_ was no longer one of her favorite classic horror movies.

She spun on her heel and ran back for the elevator. She was only lucky that those things were so slow. Her finger smashed the up button repeatedly. The ghouls were coming closer as if they could smell her and where she was going. George from the mail room, she could only tell by the blood-splattered bronze name tag on the label, shambled towards the elevator, his gray fleshy hands held out to grab her and drag her back in order for them to feast on her blood and guts. The doors couldn't close soon enough. It whirred into life. She was surprised that the elevator still worked. Only the lights were turned off and the phone line disconnected. Yuri pressed the button to take her all the way to the top. Mr. Powers would have the answers

Just as long as his son wouldn't be there with him.

The elevator climbed all the way up to the 26th floor. It led to the only room on the top floor, Mr. Powers', the president's, office. It pinged as she reached the floor. Cautiously, she poked her head out of the elevator. This was only the place that was actually lit. There was no sign of ghouls or either of the Powers family, just some of Mr. Powers tacky golf memorabilia decorating the walls. Yuri listened closely this time for any suspicious sounds, such as moaning or growling. She didn't see any glowing blue eyes, and so, pressed forward.

Her footsteps tread lightly against the soft carpeting. Still no sign of any life, or in this case undead life, in the immediate area. Mr. Powers desk appeared in disarray. Despite the splatters of blood on the wall and some on the desk, Yuri approached it. Her hand hesitantly reached out and touched the back of the Corinthian leather chair.

"Mr. Powers?" Yuri had seen enough horror movies to know where this was going. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she sort of hoped that this was going to turn out to be a surprising twist. Whatever the outcome, she had to turn the chair, even if was just out of morbid curiosity.

Powers Senior was gripping the arms of the chair in a death grip. His eyes stared up blankly at the ceiling as the last trickles of blood swam down the front of his throat and found a hiding place beneath his red-soaked shirt. Yuri placed her hands over her mouth, almost screaming again. There was a fist sized hole in Mr. Powers chest. She could only guess as to what happened. A cold pair of hands clenched around her hips.

"What a lovely sight, isn't it, Yuri?" Grayson's voice whispered against her ear. His strong hands which she doubted she could easily escape from pulled her closer until their bodies were touching, his hips grazing hers. "Red is such a beautiful, lively color."

He pressed his filthy lips against her throat. Yuri tensed up and froze when she felt tiny little pin pricks along the column of her neck.

"W-what is that?" She panicked.

Grayson chuckled darkly, pushing his lower half further into her. "What do you mean?"

"Those, those two pins on my neck! What are those?!" Yuri screamed.

He placed his index finger over her lips, quietly silencing her. He cooed and whispered sweet, endearing things to her like she was a child being put down to sleep.

"There's no need to scream so loudly," he laughed, "At least not yet."

Yuri found herself spun around. Grayson's hands gripped her shoulders, forcing her to stand still and not to move from that spot. He grinned, and then bared his teeth.

She stared at his mouth from which protruded a set of pinkish teeth. Long, sharp, pinkish teeth, fangs stained red with his father's blood. Grayson enjoyed watching her eyes grow wide and how her lips formed an O-shape as a horrified gasp escaped from her throat.

"You..."she hesitated. "You killed...your own father?" Yuri spoke with such disgust and horror that it turned him on even more. That's what he wanted to see. True horror encroaching on her, to have her blood pumping through every vein in her body, pumping adrenaline hard and fast through her bloodstream.

"I wanted something...he was in my way. I got rid of him."

"What is that you want?"

He gripped her shoulders tighter. "Everything. Power, money. That and I really wanted to get him to shut up. Self-righteous, greedy old bastard, he was. I got tired of taking his crap. I didn't want to go into business with him. I just couldn't give a damn. I had better things to do than wait around for him to croak so I could sell this place. He was particularly disappointed in me after I fired my last secretary and forced him to make you my new one."

Yuri ground her teeth. "Her name was Catherine and she wasn't a thing for you to use, and neither and am I."

Grayson's fist landed squarely on her nose. Yuri tumbled to the floor, clutching her bleeding nose. It was an incredibly stupid thing to say, but she felt compelled to say it. She was just lucky that it only cost her a bloody nose instead of her life. She curled up into herself as she nursed her injured nose and tried to stop the blood from gushing out so much. Raising her head made her dizzy, but she was determined not to let him win. As scared as she was, there was no other way out of here without doing the one thing that could save her life, and whoever else's if by some miracle there was anybody left alive in the whole building. For once, and possibly for the last time in her life, that knowledge from watching thousands of hours of science fiction and horror movies came to good use. Kill the vampire and you destroy his minions. Just a few problems with that plan of hers. She had no silver, garlic, holy water, or Christian icons to fight with. She hadn't a gun with silver bullets and the grocery store was fresh out of stakes of the wooden variety as well as mallets to hammer it into a vampire's chest. But she did have an ax, down by the fire escape near the 14th floor. If she could make there, it'd be off with his head and she could put an end to this madness.

Yuri sat up, still clutching her nose. Grayson stared down at her, glaring with a deadly look in his eyes.

"I don't want to see that defiant look in your eye again, Yuri. I don't care what her name was. In case you haven't noticed, I'm hedonist. I take what I want, when I want, and if you don't like it, that's just too bad. Nobody's going to hear you scream." He sighed, the glare softened to a cold stare. "Now what I want you to do now is to come over here, get on your knees, and open your mouth."

Instead of doing as she was told, Yuri scrambled to her feet and took off towards the elevator. She wondered why he didn't follow her. Weren't vampires supposed to have super speed or something like that?

Her question was answered by Grayson himself.

"You're lucky I enjoy the chase." He seemed to say out loud.

She entered the elevator shut the doors and pressed the button for the 14th floor. With any luck, there wouldn't be zombies running about that floor.

Something went terribly wrong. The elevator passed the 14th floor and headed straight down for the lobby. Yuri pressed the buttons until either they or her fingers would break. By the time she reached the fourth floor, the elevator stopped. The doors swung open to a solid black wall. She didn't know whether to be relieve or terrified. She slid down the wall just as the elevator doors closed shut. The box did not move an inch.

Presently...

Yuri stood on top of the elevator. The sounds of moaning and groaning were directly under her feet. The ghouls clearly weren't what they ate because not one of them checked the emergency escape door on the ceiling. The elevator must have been vacuum sealed since not one of them had sniffed her out yet.

Her eyes darted around the elevator shaft. There was darkness and four walls. Darkness above her, darkness on every side, and countless flesh-eaters down below her. Escape. Was there any where she could escape to at this point? The tense wires holding the elevator up were groaning almost as loud as the zombies beneath her. Any second now it would break. The fall would kill her from this floor. Again, there was no place to escape to. Hope, there was none.

Until she raised her head just a little higher to find an empty air duct. Another miracle. Except one problem, how does one get up there? The walls up until that very air duct she had her eyes glued on were completely smooth. There was not a thing she could grab onto for support. Yuri turned to the tension wire connected to the elevator. The circumference of the wires were just thick enough for her hand to grab onto, not much bigger than the climbing ropes in gym class. She grabbed the wire with her bare hands and started shimmying up the cable. The thick cable cut into her palms and the inner sides of her legs. Elevator cables weren't meant to be climbed and to make matters worse any second now it could snap, and Yuri just might end up falling to her death. Or, even worse than that, a ghoul could find enough brain cells and burst through that emergency escape route and follow after her.

The air duct was in sight now. Nothing was blocking the air ways. She reached out her sore, pale hand, the other clinging for dear life to the elevator cable, towards the air duct. The moaning was growing louder. With her hand wet, with sweat or blood at this point she couldn't tell, finally she clung unto the sheet metal, just enough leverage to hop her forearm inside and was quickly followed up by the other. The air tunneling from inside was stuffy but cool.

Yuri crawled on her elbows. The groaning was louder than ever. She had most of her upper body inside the air duct when the cables finally snapped. The groaning wasn't coming from the ghouls, she might have sighed with relief. It was the cables coming undone and snapping. The sound cracked and echoed in the elevator shaft. Yuri barely had enough time to crawl inside before the thunderous crash far below could reach her.

The air may have been stuffy, but at least it was cool enough to dry the sweat dripping down her face and neck. The walls squeezed her tight at times and her elbows roughly scratched and badly bruised. It would be all worth it if she could find an exit to the outside world. She gave up on the idea of killing Grayson, even though he really deserved it. It would be a fruitless plan if she got herself killed by a zombie in her attempts to kill the vampire who made it. With no other weapons on hand, she was a sitting duck.

There was no map she could have studied over to learn the inner workings of the heating and air conditioning system. She fumbled through the blackest darkness, covered in dust, dirt, and the occasional cockroach droppings. Her lungs were filled with the enormous amount of dust in the stifling air and more than once she had to stop crawling and cough up her lungs, figuratively speaking of course. The minutes or hours ticked by. She ditched her watch somewhere in the air duct, the plastic band did not mix well with the sticky sweat covering her body. She did not know how long she had been in there. The shadows seemed to close in on her.

Eventually, hope was lost and she nearly collapsed from exhaustion, thinking that she might as well die here. It would be slow and painful, but better than facing Grayson or being torn apart by ghouls.

Soft voices carried through the air duct. For a moment, she thought she had passed out and was dreaming. Or perhaps the weight of psychological trauma had caught up with her and her brain was playing tricks on her. Yuri raised herself up as best she could in that tight space and listened very closely. The throbbing, pulsing blood in her ears deafened her, even only for a little while longer. She forced herself to calm down just so the blood in her ears would stop being so loud. When she finally able to hear something other than her own heart beat, the sound of voices, ones that she had never heard before but most certainly not some of the undead, were coming ahead of her. There was a grated vent to the front of her. She crawled over, slowly, physically, emotionally, and mentally exhausted. She wanted to cry out so they, whoever they were, could hear her. _Then again_, she thought, _they might be working for Grayson. _She would wait until she could hear them properly before calling out for help.

There was that groaning sound again that groaned out the voices up ahead. Yuri knew better than to look over her shoulder, one of the many things you don't do in horror movies, one of the top three things you don't do as a matter of fact, one being never have sex when a psycho killer is on the loose and two is to never take a vacation to a spooky cabin in the woods. She wished she listened to her own advice, but the pair of glowing blue eyes and bloody teeth crawling towards her had her feeling like it was a bit too late for that.

She screamed and screamed until she made herself deaf. With fresh adrenaline pumping, Yuri crawled faster towards the grated vent. Exhaustion be damned.

A freezing, clammy hand grabbed her ankle. Yuri screamed louder than before despite her hoarse throat. Her legs kicked and fought furiously. The cramped space made matter worse. Most of the time she hurt herself more than the zombie that had seized on her ankle. Every second she kept waiting for it to sink its rotting teeth into her but it never did. This was hardly the time think about why it wasn't chomping down on her leg like a chicken wing. Yuri crawled faster even if that meant dragged the ghoul with her. Her fingers barely grabbed a hold of the vent between its metal slots when the ghoul started dragging her backwards. If it didn't mean to eat her then Grayson must have sent it to find her. Being eaten by ghouls or eaten by Grayson. Which was the scarier fate?

The short stiletto heel of her shoe was lodged in the ghoul's eye socket with an awful squish. The ghoul growled or moaned or perhaps something in between. It couldn't really feel pain but it must have felt something. Yuri tried not to throw up at seeing her shoe impaling an eyeball. She turned away and hauled herself up using the slots on the vent for some added traction. It loosened under grip and from the ghoul's grip she freed herself with a kick to its other eye socket. The bile rose in her throat when her heel came into contact with the other eyeball, making a nauseating squish sound.

Legs first through the vent, only to find the floor some few feet below her.

"I hate this world and everything in it." She mumbled before a bullet whizzed past her dangling legs.


End file.
